Earlier this week – well, Monday to be specific – we celebrated my dad’s birthday out at my older brother’s house.
My youngest nephew. Colin, made ribs — and, oddly enough I didn’t take many/any pictures of the deliciousness!! However, I did manage to get a shot of my Phred enjoying a bit of smokey BBQ goodness!!
Phred does not often have such meaty goodness in his face!
And, of course there was cake. If you don’t know yet, I have to say that I. LOVE. CAKE. Preferably (pay attention if you want to stalk/woo me with cakey goodness!!) white cake with buttercream frosting. I’m really not a huge fan of chocolate cake. And if you REALLY want to impress me, find a place that makes those old very sugar-y not quite hard but a little crunchy frosting flowers.
But I digress.
We had birthday cake.
Cake with candle holes 🙂
And we also had candles.
Miscellaneous candles
And at one point the candles were on the cake AND lit! But of course, no picture again!
My sister also brought my dad a Birthday Dutch Apple Pie – which is still in the refrigerator at his house!!
After dinner we watched a little TV and then my brother’s deer feeder went off and the dogs were brought in! And the deer showed up.
Lots of them!
And one of them was non-too pleased about having me taking pictures of his family!!
All in all it was a pretty great day! It’s always nice to spend time with family!
Hope your enjoying your week — and we’re on the downhill slope to the weekend!!!
So, it’s Sunday and I’m going to do something new. I’m going to plan my week ahead of time – I’m gonna MAKE things happen and not just let them happen TO me!! Or something like that 😉
Anyway, tonight is a big night on TV – lots of great new commercials that we’ve all seen on YouTube and Facebook this week will ‘premier’ during a football game. The game itself is supposed to kick off at 6:30 but I imagine coverage will start sometime around 11 tonight…But, our favorite Puppy Bowl starts earlier and runs all day!
I’ve picked up my Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred and let me tell you, I don’t want to EVER go so long without working out again. She is KILLING ME!! But … I’m not dead yet! So my plan this week is to do her Level 1 workout Monday Tuesday and Wednesday morning after taking the Phred for a walk.
This week I’m also going to head back down to Texas for a few days — a couple with my dad and then, over the weekend, a reunion with a few of my sorority sisters! So really excited for this!! I just saw Susie last year when I was in Disneyland for the #DumboDoubleDar and it’s probably been over a year since I’ve seen Ann (who happens to live in Houston so that’s crazy!!) and I haven’t seen Janet since back when Duran Duran were really hot! Unfortunately a couple of the other girls can’t make it but we’ll be doing this again for sure!
Letters from jpgreek.com
So today is a day for packing and cleaning and getting ready for the week! And enjoying the spring-like weather outside – though our friend Phil in Punxsutawney says we have 6 more weeks of winter. Some of us say Yay!! Some of us…well, we don’t!
Make this a great Sunday and don’t forget to get out there and
Lots of catching up to do…but first, because I love the random YouTube embed that gets a song stuck in your head 😉
So, we had Thanksgiving and I’ve started a new job –
Travel Day went okay – slight glitch when my flight out of Cleveland was canceled but United Airlines got me re-booked before I was even able to get to the gate to complain!! I had great baking and working plans for when I got to Dad’s house.
So I did get a decent day’s work in (I’m still waiting to be fully set up to work remotely so not a WHOLE lot I can do!) and me and pop’s went out for dinner.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is always a day I go to my brother’s and do the baking for Thursday. Once upon a time my nephews helped out. Now they’re teenagers. Just kidding, my oldest boy was a great help to me this year!!
And then this happened — Yummmmmm!!!
Apple Pie – possibly the best I’ve ever made!
Pumpkin Pie — YUM!!
Chocolate ganache topping for the chocolate cheesecake…Super Yummy!!
Chocolate cheesecake – a first time recipe that turned out quite nice!
Tasty orange jello dessert – of course in the south we call it a Salad 😉
And then, unfortunately, THIS happened……
“What is the dog got to the apple pie, Alex?”
Which caused this to happen……
He looks kind of remorseful, doesn’t he?
Turkey day went off without a hitch as usual. My brother makes a mean turkey – this year the brine was a new spicier version than usual and the stuffing was rice. I made home made rolls for the first time in MANY years..
It would probably have been good to take a picture of the BAKED rolls!!
All in all, it seemed like a much lighter meal than usual which left plenty of room for pie!!
It has recently become a tradition to go to the Texas Renaissance Faire on the Friday after Thanksgiving but this year I had to bow out – I was planning to go to a rosary for my oldest friend’s mom who passed away that week but ended up feeling kind of sick so slept instead.
Saturday I *did* feel better and went to Freddie’s funeral – it was the first one I’d been to since my own mom’s a few years ago and I handled it much better than I thought.
Afterwards, we were meeting at her house which is in the neighborhood where I grew up. So before heading over, I took a tour.
It’s hard to see behind the big tree, but this is the house I grew up in.
These are pictures of the parking lot where I first learned to avoid running in PE class 🙂
4 laps was a mile — and it would take me the whole class to get through it!!
Funny how things seem closer and smaller when we get bigger.
Eydie and I spent a few hours talking about a lot of stuff. Just a little bit of history here – we met in first grade and I can’t remember a time when we weren’t friends. And as hard as it is, I am so glad I was able to be there for her.
Thanksgiving this year really reminded me how much I have to be thankful for. I got to spend some great time with my dad and family and some really quality time with one of my dearest friends. Even when I get cranky, I’m still happy to be there!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and got to spend time with those who are most important to you!!
Last Sunday while I was “running” the Disneyland Half, my Pops was having a birthday!! I sent a text – but really, to be honest, that’s pretty lame right? I mean…this is the man without whom with I would not exist in my current form 🙂
This is him now-ish (he’s usually the one taking the pictures!):
And this is him back when I was much smaller/cuter/probably much funnier! :
Pops with my older brother and sister…and me
My dad tries to get to every one of my runs, no matter where they are. In NYC, I know I can count on seeing him standing on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn. At the Marine Corps Marathon I know I’ll see him a few times on the course. And, when I get back to the Houston Half Marathon in January….you got it! He’ll be there– in the Heights and a couple of places on Studemont!
No matter how slow or how “fast” I’m going, he’s always there encouraging me and telling me how great I’m doing! And I don’t think I ever really let him know how much that means – or how much I look forward to seeing him along the way.
So, a week late – Happy Birthday Pops!! You will always be my Number One Fan!!!
And, as always, circumstances remind me that we need to remember to tell the people who are important to us how important they are.
For awhile there, I was running the Aramco Houston Half Marathon every year…then they moved to a lottery for entry and I missed a year. Then I ran the runDisney Goofy Challenge and Tinkerbell Half this year- and Tinkerbell is generally the same weekend as Houston. The last time I ran was in 2012 and part of the weekend fun was the Olympic Marathon Trials
The start and finish of the trials
So this year I entered the lottery and got in! And, starting last year (this year? 2013) they’ve moved the 5K to Saturday so that you can do 2 races and get 3 medals! Who isn’t up for more bling! So, 2 races, three medals! Woot.
And, Houston is kind of my home town race, being born and mostly raised there. And 75% of my family still lives there so it’s chance to see everyone since I generally don’t get down at Christmas.
Great weather, great course, Super post-race feast PLUS my best friend goes to the expo with me and my dad cruises around out on the course! Doesn’t get much better than that!
Well, I suppose if I was shooting for the Olympics, that could be better!
outrunningthefork 